LAWRENCE O`DONNELL, MSNBC ANCHOR: What was the most important question asked today at Chuck Hagel`s confirmation hearing for secretary defense? It was not about an external threats. It was about an internal threat. The military is out of control, rape crisis and the military`s cruel determination to protect rapist in their ranks. The invisible war within the military remained invisible to most of the senators in today`s confirmation hearing.

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ANDREA MITCHELL, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Chuck Hagel is taking plenty of heat within his own party.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think the nation of Israel has committed war crimes?

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O`DONNELL: John McCain thought this was the big question.

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MCCAIN: Did you disagree on President Obama on his decision for the surge in Afghanistan?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: But in fact this is the most pressing question facing the new secretary of defense.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When we hear report that is there are upwards of 19,000 sexual assaults in the military against women it is unacceptable. I would need a strong commitment from you that you will treat our military families and look after them in the way that you would look after your own.

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D), CONNECTICUT: On the issue of sexual assaults the devil is the military I don`t know if you have seen an excellent documentary called "the in visible war."

HAGEL: Yes.

BLUMENTHAL: I would ask that your commitment, not only to the prosecution and holding accountable, people who are involved in this criminal conduct, but also to the victim.

HAGEL: Absolutely, I will commit to that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: Yes, sexual assault in the military is the single most important issue facing the secretary of defense. The secretary of defense has no absolutely voice on his country`s policy on Israel. Every minute spent on that subject today in that hearing was a complete waste of time. And there is absolutely no disagreement within the American government on this country`s policy towards Israel. All Democrats in the Senate disagree with all Republicans on Israel. And they always have. There never has been a disagreement. There will never be. Trying to find such a difference is a ludicrous exercise.

Even on military deployment issues and military budgets, the secretary of defense is merely one of the many voices the president will hear when the president makes decisions above our tactical military choices in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

But, the defense secretary does have jurisdiction over personnel with defense secretary does have sole jurisdiction over how to handle what is now an absolutely out-of-control crime wave in the United States military for thousands of American soldiers, the military has become a rape club.

According to the defense department`s own statistics, there were 19,300 sexual assaults in the military in 2010 alone. This rape crisis in the American military has come to light thanks not to any action taken by those senators or the defense department, but thanks to the academy award nominated documentary "the in visible war" that you heard senator Blumenthal mentioned to Chuck Hagel.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If a man gets accused of rape is a set up. The woman is lying.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I could choose to report it. But, if I was, you know, if they found out what I was saying wasn`t to be truthful, then I would reduce in rank.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Even with the rape kit and everything and my friend catching him rape me, they still don`t believe me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`ve reported it two different times to my squad leader and he told me that there is nothing he can do about because I didn`t have any proof.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They actually did charge me with adultery. I wasn`t married, he was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: You heard Chuck Hagel say, that he has seen this documentary. Current secretary of defense Leon Panetta saw that academy award nominated film in April of last year, two days after that, he changed the Pentagon policy and announced that rape accusations will be moved out of the direct line of command that has been so successful of suppressing these investigations and that each branch of the arms services will now have a special unit for sexual assault victims.

This is something the secretary of defense actually has the power to do, the power to do it on his own authority. But most senators have no interest in that. In this rape crisis in the American military and they wasted their time today talking about policy questions that have nothing to do with being secretary of defense.

Joining me now is MSNBC`s Alex Wagner and the "Washington Post`s" Eugene Robinson.

Alex, I can think of no more important concern for a secretary of defense than the safety of his troops. And in our military today, as this documentary absolutely proves, women are actually putting their lives at risk simply by enlisting. And we have to sit there today and watch the senators wander all over the place on all these irrelevant questions about policies that have nothing to do with being secretary of defense when they have this crime crisis right in front of them.

WAGNER: Well, I mean, I think that the reasons for that are two-fold. One is, issues relating to women, violence perpetrated against women have been systematically ignored and in particular by the Congress of recent years. Let`s keep in mind the violence against women act has not been renewed. Let`s keep in mind that plenty of Republican folks running for Congress from the Republican side had a robust and totally untethered to reality, a conversation about rape that had nothing to do with actual rape or protecting women.

So, in some way, it is sort of understandable, I guess, or its other piece with ignoring issues pertaining women and their health.

At the same time, Lawrence, I think we all know the Chuck Hagel confirmation hearing wasn`t at all about Chuck Hagel nor wasn`t about defense policy. It was a chance for Republicans today in the senate foreign relations committee to litigate their gripes with the Obama administration.

And so, they asked him (INAUDIBLE) questions that really have nothing to do with his purview that aren`t really questions that need to be answered vis-a-vis defense. But, they were got you questions. There are ways for republicans to score points in front of a prominent person from the administration.

O`DONNELL: I just want to go back to this documentary one more time. Because I did a segment last year and I`ve never known of a documentary to be brought to the secretary of defense and then actually change policy on the basis of it. I just want to take one more look at annulment of documentary that is about - something that happened literally within walking distance of those Senate office buildings at the marine barracks in Washington D.C. Let`s watch this.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One of the first things I was told when I checked in was don`t wear any makeup because the marines will think you want to sleep with them. And I thought, that was just ridiculous.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The atmosphere of the bad at marine barracks Washington was horrible. People asked me what sexual favors did I perform to get my orders there?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was a senior officer in my command who -- the first time he spoke to me, he said female marines here are nothing but objects for the marines to (bleep).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: Eugene, there is nothing less satisfying most of the time than a United States Senate hearing. Since they wonder off, they frequently in situations like this, have evidence like this right under their noses and they wander off into their talking points agendas and today was a classic example of that.

EUGENE ROBINSON, COLUMNIST, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, it really was. And your point is well taken. Why not ask about something that the secretary of defense can actually do something about. And this is something the secretary defense can and must do something about obviously. There is an issue this culture of machismo and impunity and sexual violence in the military is not something that was cured by one order from Leon Panetta or even from his vigilance over the last couple of years have has got to be more. And when one wonders if Hagel has thought a lot about this issue and I would love to hear more questions about it.

O`DONNELL: Well, the good news is he says he has seen the documentary and that is first place you start in traffic or what to do here.

Marco Rubio has announced, of course, that he will vote against Chuck Hagel and every single reason he cites has nothing to do with being secretary of defense. He has got policy toward Cuba in here. He has support for Israel in here. And he also has defense budgets which by the way are controlled by the United States Senate and the House of Representatives.

Alex Wagner, this is a free one for Rubio since he is moving out in a non-right wing direction on immigration reform. He has to find every spot he can to go with the reactionaries and this looks like a spot he found.

WAGNER: Sure. I mean, this is a litmus test for 2016, right? so, Rubio comes out on stage in a bipartisan D.C. chain with Chuck Schumer and hasn`t been answered that or counters that with an appearance on Rush Limbaugh`s radio show. For every step forward, there must be two steps backwards. I mean, that is part and parcel of the modern Republican party.

The other thing I would ad, Lawrence, and I think the question with this scandal in the military which you call, I think appropriately a culture of rape within the institution is the broader issue we have on hand in modern American society which is institutional failure and our believe as citizens that institutions can in fact police themselves as this point.

I mean, keep in mind, sexual violence in the military has been going on since the tail hook scandal on the early `90s. They set up an office in 2005 to deal with sexual assaults and prevention of rape. That obviously has not been successful or in any way effective effort.

So, the question is when you look at the catholic church, when you look at the military, can these institutions police themselves? Is there enough of a culture, of a sort of a gut check and honesty and transparency within institution that have been around so very long? And we are a culture of secrecy almost is very pervasive.

O`DONNELL: Eugene, imagine Republican senators at the confirmation for the head of health and human services who have found that there is some kind of corrupt practice being covered up in terms of Medicare payments or something like that. I mean, just imagine the outrage.

ROBINSON: The outrage. You know, the pounding the table and they would be shocked.

You know, on the question of the military policing itself. One thing that the Senate is supposed to do and the house is provide oversight. They are supposed to be looking at exactly this sort of thing but they seem uninterested. And of course, not only that. Even the extraneous - the things not within his purview, they were asking about what kind of the wrong things. I mean, there is a war going on in Afghanistan, 60,000 troops are in there as much about that. Al-Qaeda is rampant in parts of North African and ask a lot about that. It was all political basically.

O`DONNELL: Alex Wagner, Eugene Robinson, thank you both very much for joining me tonight.

WAGNER: Thanks, Lawrence.

O`DONNELL: Coming up, the lies the defenders of massacre weapons tell about women and guns. Joy Reid will join me on that.

And Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick is here for his first national television interview since he appointed William Cowell to be the next senator for Massachusetts. We will find out why the governor did not follow my advice to appoint Barney Frank. O`Donnell versus Patrick is coming up.

And in the rewrite tonight, the emergency room doctor who treated the victims of the massacre of Sandy Hook elementary school.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O`DONNELL: There was a lot of crazy testimonies in yesterday`s gun control hearing in the senate about women and guns. And just how important it is for women to be able to have assault weapons in high capacity magazines. Joy Reid will join me on that one coming up.

And Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick is here for his first national interview since choosing the next Massachusetts senator which means it is his first national interview since he broke my heart. He didn`t pick my choice. Let`s see if the governor can win me back.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They can be a situation for a mother runs out of bullets because of something we do here. Six bullets in the hands of a woman trying to defend her children may not be enough.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An assault weapon in the hands of a young woman defending her babies in her home becomes a defense weapon. And the peace of mind that a woman has as she is facing three, four, five violent attackers or intruders in her home with her children screaming in the background, the peace of mind knowing that she has a scary looking gun gives her more courage when she is fighting hardened violent criminals.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And therein lies the problem with having to defend assault weapons because if you go out and try to defend assault weapons then you end up looking like a jackass.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: Jack ass Lindsey Graham had to imagine a situation in which a woman and her children are killed because the mother ran out of bullets. He had to imagine it because he could not find no such case in reality where six bullet weren`t enough.

And as you saw on this program last night, Gayle Trotter`s wild imaginings about the assault weapons toting mom with her children screaming in the background was completely fictional. She and Lindsey Graham and every other worshiper of assault weapon in his at capacity magazine at yesterday`s Senate hearing could not come up with a single case, not one case, of a mother or father or an one else successfully defending themselves against violent criminals using an assault weapon of high capacity magazine, not one case. But there was an important point made about women and mother`s and guns in that hearing yesterday and it came from one of the vices of sanity at the witness table.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM JOHNSON, BALTIMORE COUNTRY POLICE CHIEF: Statistics show that when females are killed it is more likely over 50 percent of the time to be by a spouse or household member. A gun un in a home where there is a history of domestic violence, statistics show that there is a 500 percent increase or chance that that person will be victimized by gun violence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: Among those women killed by a household member with a gun she bought herself and kept in her home was the mother of the young man who massacred these six women and 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

Joining me now is Joy Reid, managing editor for the Grio and an MSNBC contributor.

Joy, one of the anecdotes that was thrown around a lot at yesterday`s hearing was about Sara McKinley who defended herself and her baby with her gun. And of course, Ms. Trotter who testified about that used that prepared testimony in her opening remarks, had no idea what kind of gun she used. Let`s listen to that moment where we discovered that with the senator of the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Miss Trotter, quick question. Sara McKinley, in defending her home, used a Remington 870 express 12-gauge shotgun that would not be banned under the statue correct?

GAYLE TROTTER, ATTORNEY: I don`t remember what type of weapon she used.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trust me that is what it was. And it would not be banned under that statue. So, it doesn`t - I think it proves the point that with ordinary firearms not 100 magazine peculiar types of artifacts people are quite capable of defending themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: Joy Reid, we saw Gayle Trotter, the most under prepared witness I ever seen in the senate hearing and Wayne Lapierre and all of those people, they came there to testify about something that wasn`t being considered. They came there not to testify about why people need assault weapons and magazines. That`s what the committee is trying to figure out. They came there to defend all uses of guns everywhere and that is not being challenged.

JOY-ANN REID, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, exactly. And that is - there, in lies the problem. You have the gun lobbyists essentially writing almost cinematic scenarios of horror, in which you would theoretically need to have an assault weapon to defend yourself. But the real world cases they talk about, just as you got out last night when you interviewed Ms. Trotter aren`t even about assault weapons.

When you hear assault weapons used and you see them in the news, it is because there is a mass murder using them, not in mother defending her kits. And one other point about the McKinley case. Miss McKinley was defending herself against two intruders, one of whom had knife, the other one of whom fled when he heard the gunshot. She shot that assailant once and before she did she called 911 and asked the 911 operator if it OK for me to shoot this person and was told I can`t tell you what to do, but defend yourself. That wasn`t the scenario of someone shooting back at her and her being the Peruvian good guy with the gun. That was the case where she used disproportion the force appropriately without an assault weapon.

O`DONNELL: And Joy, we actually have some real breaking news about Sara McKinley here tonight. Our staff reached her by phone today to talk about this. And to talk about the situation that is now being considered by the senate, which is of course assault weapons, what about assault weapons?

Now, Sara McKinley made it clear to us, she doesn`t want to see anymore gun control. She is not in favor of the new legislation. But said this to us about assault weapons. This woman who found herself defending herself with a gun her life came to that point where she had to do it. Has she - what does she think of assault weapons? She said personally, I have no use for one, and don`t own one.

And Joy, that is her feeling after suffering one of these attacks in real life herself.

REID: That is right. The idea that you need 100 rounds to stop a guy with a knife is absurd on its face. And even gun owners and supports of the second amendment right were again, as you mentioned, as mentioned last night, it was mentioned in the hearing. None of this is an issue in an assault weapons ban. This is a gun that this particular woman didn`t need to defend herself.

And by the way, the other part of that story that isn`t told, Lawrence, is that once she shot that assailant, there is a judicial process. Now, she ultimately wasn`t prosecuted. But there are real world consequences to using a gun to defend yourself.

And I brought today with me the case, very quickly, of Marissa Alexander we reported on the Grio. This was a woman who used her gun because she was in fear of her life from a husband which is the most likely scenario when a woman is threaten and she fired over his head because she feared he was going to beat her up as he done before. She is facing 20 years in prison for that. That is usually what happen happens when a woman uses a gun.

O`DONNELL: Joy Reid, thank very much for joining us tonight.

REID: Thank you.

O`DONNELL: Coming up what an emergency room doctor has to say to the lobbyists for the NRA. That`s in the rewrite.

And a last word exclusive, Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick`s first national interview since for some reason he chose to ignore my advice about who to choose to appoint to the United States Senate.

Deval Patrick will join me. It is coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O`DONNELL: My next guest is the governor of Massachusetts Deval Patrick who ignored my advice about who to appoint to the United Senate I kept telling him day after day, week after week and he - you know what, I should calm down about this. I`m not ready to interview the governor about why he completely ignored every word I had to say about who he should appoint to the Senate. So let`s -- I think what we should do here -- I think we should take a break. I will calm down.

We`ll come back with Governor Deval Patrick.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O`DONNELL: OK, I think I can do this. In the Spotlight tonight, Mr. Cowan goes to Washington. Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts bravely -- or was it recklessly -- ignored the unsolicited advice of outside agitators like me who kept telling him that he should appoint the Honorable Barney Frank to be the temporary senator to fill John Kerry`s Senate seat until Massachusetts can elect a new senator on June 25th.

Governor Patrick announced his choice yesterday, William Cowan, who has served the governor has his chief of staff and chief counsel. Mr. Cowan, known as Mo, is a married father of two young children, and according to my many sources on this subject in Boston, Mo Cowan is a really good guy who is also wicked smart.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O`DONNELL: Joining me now for an exclusive interview, the governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick. Thanks for joining me tonight, governor.

GOV. DEVAL PATRICK (D), MASSACHUSETTS: I`m glad to be with you, Lawrence. Thank you for having me.

O`DONNELL: Governor, as you know, I have said on this program, in this past month, that you are the greatest governor not just in America -- the greatest governor in the world of all-time.

PATRICK: Oh my goodness. I feel there is a but coming.

O`DONNELL: There is a little bit of a but coming here. That was when I was urging you to appoint Barney Frank to the Senate. You know, governor, this is the first time a Massachusetts governor has rejected my advice. It is also the very first time that I have given advice to a Massachusetts governor. So I`m only zero for one.

But now do your best to convince me, based on this choice of the new Senator Cowan, that you are indeed still the greatest governor in the world.

PATRICK: Well, I don`t know if I can quite make that mark. But I thank you for the --

(CROSS TALK)

O`DONNELL: Let`s hear that case.

PATRICK: I thank you very much for the encouragement. First of all, what is not to like about Barney Frank, one of the best congressman I think the country has ever seen? And he has served us so well here in Massachusetts. And he was one of a number of folks on a long and deep list of talent. Mo Cowan is someone I know well, who was intimately involved with the issues that we`ve been working on here in Massachusetts, having been my chief of staff for the last two years, and my chief legal council before that.

He is a well respected public citizen in that old fashioned sense, Lawrence, people who come and go from public life and public issues when they have something to contribute, uncommonly wise and thoughtful and always well prepared.

And to the extent I`m a good governor, it has been on account of a lot having to do with Mo Cowan`s contribution. So I think he is going to be a great steward of the interests of the people of the Commonwealth for the next few months, until the main event, which is the special election, when the people fill that seat.

O`DONNELL: Governor, I was working in the Senate for Senator Moynihan when he made two historic appointments as U.S. attorneys, the first female U.S. attorney in the southern district of New York, first African-American U.S. attorney in New York State, in the eastern district. And those were choice made for the best qualified people for those jobs at the time.

But I do remember -- I will never forget the senator feeling history in his hands in making those choices and those appointments. Did you feel that as you were approaching this, having that opportunity to appoint an African-American to the United States Senate?

PATRICK: Well, I certainly thought about it. It wasn`t obviously the only factor in my decision. It wasn`t even the central factor in my decision.

But I do think that it is incumbent on all of us in positions with opportunities like the one I have to consider the fact that we are a much, much more richly diversion community and commonwealth and country, and that there is talent in every American community. And so having opportunities to expose that talent like this is a great thing and an opportunity I was glad to seize.

Now I want to listen to something that your lieutenant governor said yesterday about Senator Designate Cowan. Let`s listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GOV. TIM MURRAY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: He`s cool. Tom Brady, George Clooney, James Bond and the president have nothing on Mo.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: Governor.

PATRICK: It`s true. It`s true.

O`DONNELL: He`s that cool? He`s really that cool?

PATRICK: He`s really that cool. I hope you will have him on some time soon.

O`DONNELL: I`m begging him to come on. Yes, absolutely.

PATRICK: You know what`s a shame, is that we are only going to get this short period of Mo Cowan on the national stage, and indeed in public life. He, like me in two years, is going back into the private sector. And that is something he has promised his wife and family.

But as I say, he is a true public citizen in the sense that he really does feel that sense of service and that sense of active citizenship. And I think we`ll see that that will motivate his best work in this time in the Senate.

O`DONNELL: OK, governor, now this is just you and me talking here. OK?

(CROSS TALK)

O`DONNELL: As you know, I`ve worked in the Senate for about eight years and chief of staff of two Senate committees, you know, heavy Senate experience. I`m from Dorchester.

PATRICK: Wicked good.

O`DONNELL: And I did, for a few hours, express an interest in this seat myself. Just tell me the truth. Where was I on the short list?

PATRICK: Let me just say that had you not been on the short list, I probably would not have come on your show. It`s very, very hard for me to look you in the virtual eye this way and compliment you as I do, and to feel as strongly about your qualifications as I do.

But I hope you understand, other opportunities I`m sure will come for you, if you just continue to work hard.

O`DONNELL: I will do my best. I would have had to move in with my brother Kevin to establish the residence thing. And he`s a Republican. So that would have been very messy. So I think this is actually working out quite well for everyone involved.

And listen, if Senator Cowan -- if Senate Cowan can really be half as cool as the coolest governor in the world, the governor of Massachusetts, he will be -- he really will be the coolest senator, because that is a low bar. Coolest senator is a very low bar.

PATRICK: I`m called a lot of things. Cool is not one of them, Lawrence. Thank you.

O`DONNELL: Governor Patrick, thank you very much for joining us tonight. I understand the process you went through. And thank you for considering all of the public advice that you got about this. And I completely respect your decision making process.

PATRICK: Thank you so much. Be well.

O`DONNELL: Thanks, governor.

PATRICK: Take care.

O`DONNELL: Coming up, Republicans attacking Marco Rubio for supporting immigration reform. Some Republicans still believe they should just give up on the Latino vote.

And in the Rewrite tonight, the emergency room doctor who was in charge of treating the victims of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O`DONNELL: Have you ever seen a doctor cry in a hospital emergency room? I haven`t. I`ve seen my share of crying in E.R.s and done a bit of it myself, but I`ve never seen a doctor cry.

You are about to see a doctor who did 20 years in the E.R., as he put it, never broke a tear until December 14th when he was in charge of the E.R. that was suddenly overwhelmed by the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

In tonight`s Rewrite, more testimony that should have been heard at the Senate hearing yesterday in Washington and ammunition control. Last night, the Connecticut`s legislature`s Bipartisan Task Force on Gun Violence and Prevention and Children`s Safety held it`s final hearing at Newtown High School.

Dr. William Begg made this plea.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. WILLIAM BEGG, NEWTOWN E.R. DOCTOR: Thank you. My name is Bill Begg. What is my inspiration for coming tonight? I`m a parent of three Newtown students. I`m a grammar school track coach. I`m the president of the medical staff here at Danbury Hospital. I`m with the newly group of United Physicians of Newtown that formed in response to the December 14th shootings.

I`m the EMS medical director for Newtown and this region. And I`m an E.R. doctor that was on shift December 14th.

What is my goal in the next two and a half minutes? My goal is to somehow convince you legislators that gun control measures that you hopefully will enact will make a difference. The gun lobby hasn`t allowed a lot of research, so I had to go overseas for research.

In Dunblane, Scotland in `96 --

(APPLAUSE)

BEGG: In Dunblane, Scotland in `96, 29 first graders were shot, their teacher, and then the gunman shot himself. Just a few years before in England, a 27-year-old with two semiautomatic rifles shot 31 people, killing 16 of them. And he killed his mother and he killed himself.

What did those legislators do? They, over a 10 year period, between `88 and `96 -- I guess that`s eight years -- they enacted real legislation. Did the legislation make a different right away? Actually it didn`t. Not only didn`t it make a difference, there was actually a bump in gun violence.

But do where do they stand in 2010? In the U.S., since 1996, we have had over 20 mass murders. Great Britain has had one. OK, in 2010, the United States had about 32,000 gun deaths. Great Britain, 155.

Gun legislation takes a while to come to fruition, but it works. If you actually own a gun and it is in your home, because you are waiting for that person to show up that`s going to terrorize your house, let me give you some stats. You have 25 times -- not percent -- 25 times more chance you are going to get killed from your own gun or your wife or your spouse or your kids -- 25 times more chance you are going to die from your own gun than you getting killed from that intruder.

States that do have gun control do actually have a lower chance of violence for their citizens.

In summary, what I`m asking for is you consider a stronger assault bans -- assault weapons ban, elimination of the sale of automatic and semiautomatic weapons, restriction on the size of the magazine clips, number of rounds, extend background checks, and also please let us do some gun research that is real.

From the mental health side --

(APPLAUSE)

BEGG: -- what galls me is the same folk that is are saying, well, I get it, we want to balance the budget -- the same people that are saying let`s -- let`s -- let`s take care of guns or allow guns to be out there are the same ones that are saying let`s focus on mental health. Yet those are the same ones that are saying let`s cut services. And what are the first services to be cut? Mental health.

So I`m not even asking you to add mental health services. I`m just asking you, please don`t cut anymore. Allow me as a medical doctor, when I see a patient or when my colleagues see a patient, when I educate them on the affects of alcohol or tobacco, safe sex, motor vehicle accidents, can I please talk to them about the risks of gun violence? Please?

(APPLAUSE)

BEGG: I want to recognize the -- you know, 20 years in the E.R., never broke a tear. But this has affected me. I want to recognize the valiant efforts of then Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corp. Even though Mike Collins and I disagree, I respect him immensely And Lori Violet (ph) and the rest of the Newtown EMS, thank you so much for your services.

To the families --

(APPLAUSE)

BEGG: To the families, on behalf of the E.R., we tried our best. We tried our best. And to you lawmakers, my mom and dad were both Connecticut state representatives. I asked mom -- I said, mom, why won`t they make a change? Why do you think? They said, well, you know, they have their party lines and they have their lobbies and they have their -- they may be not senior.

I said, do you think this one time they will make the -- they`ll make the right decision. And you know, she said yeah, I think this one time. So I`m asking you, please, make the right decision on behalf of Newtown, and Connecticut and the United States.

Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R), LOUISIANA: Identity politics is corrosive to the great American melting pot. And we must reject it. The first step in getting the voters to like us is to demonstrate that we like them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: That was Republican Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, one week ago today, pleading with his party to, as he said so famously, stop being the stupid party. Note to the governor, your party is not listening. In an editorial yesterday slamming comprehensive immigration reform, the conservative "National Review" says "Republican immigration reformers with an eye to political reality should begin by appreciating that Latinos are a Democratic constituency. They did not vote for Mitt Romney. They did not vote for John McCain. They did not vote for George W. Bush. And in the election before that, they did not vote for George W. Bush again."

The editors of the "National Review" think they know why Republicans are losing the Latino vote. "Take away the Spanish surname and Latino voters look a great deal like many other Democratic constituencies. Low income households, headed by single mothers and dependent upon some form of welfare are not looking for an excuse to join forces with Paul Ryan and Pat Toomey."

Victoria, I would love to get your reaction to that picture of the Latino voter as described by the "National Review."

VICTORIA DEFRANCESCO SOTO, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Lawrence, I`m just incomplete disagreement with their assessment of how the Republican party has reached out to Latinos. Yes, Romney and McCain did poorly with Latinos. But because they did a 180 in terms of reaching out this electorate. And George W. Bush, in my opinion, did rather well with Latinos. He grew from low 30s in 2000 up to over 40 percent in 2004.

And if you look at his years as governor here in Texas, Governor Bush did very well with Latinos.

OK, Latinos will never been an overwhelming Democratic -- I`m sorry, Republican constituency. But we do have at least 30 percent of Latinos who are independents. And so for Republicans to just give up on that percentage of independents to me is puzzling.

O`DONNELL: That is the point, isn`t it, Steve. John Kerry got 53 percent of the Latino vote. President Obama got 71 percent of the Latino vote. At minimum, the question for Republicans is how much do you want to lose the Latino vote by.

STEVE SCHMIDT, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: George W. Bush got 44 percent of the Latino vote. We were having conversations in the White House in 2005 about the day that we would get to 50 percent of the vote. It is just a remarkable statement.

I do think that piece airs some legitimate conservative issues around immigration reform on the security side, for example. But the stigmatization of the fastest growing demographic group in the country, I just don`t understand it. Why would you ever paint in such a broad brush the demographic that is one of the largest net contributors to the U.S. military?

It is fundamentally part of the problem in the Republican party, is that we hear the word Latino, like the hammer hitting the knee, there is a reflex to that it is some dependant class of moochers, as opposed to doctors and lawyers.

And they are as much a part of the fabric of the American community as any other immigrant group that has come before, has the same hopes and aspirations. And for the Republican party to almost purposely alienate that with the intemperance of the rhetoric, ignoring the successes of Brian Sandoval in Nevada or Susanna Martinez in New Mexico, states we used to win in presidential elections, I just don`t understand it.

It is almost boggling of the mind. It is hard to comprehend the -- that perspective. Why would you do that?

O`DONNELL: And Victoria, when Republicans lose the women`s vote, they don`t put out similar statements going, you know, we`re never going to win them.

DEFRANCESCO SOTO: It`s almost, in reading this editorial, that they have thrown up their hands. And the other troubling piece about -- about this article was their misinterpretation of the 1986 immigration reform, where they claim that it was a failure because the border was not enforced. It was a failure because they didn`t address the demand.

People kept coming over because employers kept giving jobs to undocumented folks. And they also make the comparison between amnesty in 1986 and amnesty today. We`re talking about two very different processes. In 1986, if you were undocumented and (inaudible) went through, you could go and apply for long-term residency. And then within five years, you could get citizenship and pay a 135 dollar application fee.

What we`re talking about today is something completely different, where you have to get in the back of the line. You have to pay taxes. We don`t know what types of fines they are going to have to pay. There`s talk of 2,000, 5,000. So it`s two completely different talks here of amnesty.

O`DONNELL: And Steve, Ann Coulter is on the "National Review" side. She said "some Republicans seem determined to create more Democratic voters. That would be the primary result of Senator Marco Rubio`s so-called amnesty plan." She calls it an amnesty plan.

Steve, who is going to win this argument in the Republican party?. Or will the -- do the Democrats even need -- in order to pas legislation, they don`t need all the Republicans? They just need some.

SCHMIDT: No, it should be fascinating to watch. Into the storm goes Marco Rubio. We are going to find out a lot about his ability to mount a presidential campaign in the context of his ability to weather this storm, to be able to convince Republicans, to able to evangelize his cause here. If you can`t rally people to a great cause, then that`s a deficit going into a presidential campaign.

And Marco Rubio goes into the storm now with conservatives and Republicans about to have a critically important debate about the future of our party.

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